Dear Stranger by Shizuka Yokomizo
Para esta serie de retratos realizados entre 1998 y el 2000, la fotógrafa Shizuka Yokomizo, residente en Londres, dejaba en los escalones de entrada de varios apartamentos notas anónimas con el siguiente texto:
"Querido Extraño,
Soy una artista que trabaja en un proyecto fotográfico sobre gente que no conozco... Desde la calle por la noche me gustaría tomar una foto de tí posando de pie en tu salón principal."
La nota especificaba que se necesitaba un periodo de unos diez minutos en los que la artista se aproximaba, tomaba la foto y desaparecía en la oscuridad. Sólo revelaría su identidad una vez que los sujetos hubieran recibido una copia de la foto incluyendo la información de contacto (por si tenían alguna objeción a que su retrato fuera incluido en las exposiciones).
Yokomizo se aseguró de que, cuando tomaba las fotos, la luz en el exterior fuera lo suficientemente tenue para impedir que la vieran - los sujetos sólo verían así su propio reflejo en la ventana.
For this 1998-2000 series of portraits, London resident photographer Shizuka Yokomizo left several anonymous letters on the doorsteps of random ground floor apartments that read:
“Dear Stranger,
I am an artist working on a photographic project which involves people I do not know…. I would like to take a photograph of you standing in your front room from the street in the evening.”
The letter specified a certain ten-minute period during which the artist would approach, take the picture, and slip back into the darkness. She would only reveal her identity once her subjects received a print and contact information (so that they could let her know if they objected to their portrait being exhibited).
Yokomizo made sure that when the photos were taken, the light would be too dark outside to see her — it would only allow her subjects to see their own reflections in the window they were looking out of.
“Dear Stranger,
I am an artist working on a photographic project which involves people I do not know…. I would like to take a photograph of you standing in your front room from the street in the evening.”
The letter specified a certain ten-minute period during which the artist would approach, take the picture, and slip back into the darkness. She would only reveal her identity once her subjects received a print and contact information (so that they could let her know if they objected to their portrait being exhibited).
Yokomizo made sure that when the photos were taken, the light would be too dark outside to see her — it would only allow her subjects to see their own reflections in the window they were looking out of.
